Big Sur – A group of scientists is trying to determine if climate change poses a threat to the iconic California Redwood.

If it does, they say, Big Sur forests could be at ground zero.

How forests and climate interact isn’t quite clear. But an alliance of scientists has converged, and they’re eager to examine coastal sustainability.

The team hypothesizes that coastal fog affects redwood resilience. Though the trees have ample drinking water during rainy Central Coast winters, summer droughts bring a different story. Redwoods depend on coastal fog to quench their summer thirst. But according to UC Berkeley professor and project collaborator Todd Dawson, climate change is threatening the extent of coastal fog.

This is where Dr. Elliott Campbell, lead scientist on the proposed redwood study, and his research team of atmospheric and social scientists, oceanographers, chemists, meteorologists and ecologists step in.

Campbell, who teaches at UC Merced, has a “UC-wide initiative” at his fingertips. Led by Professor Barry Sinervo of UC Santa Cruz and with funding approved by UC President Janet Napolitano, the initiative encourages UC-wide exploration of climate change’s effects on ecosystems. Under Sinervo’s guidance, Campbell’s project emerged as the first to employ stakeholders across UC campuses. UC Merced, Berkeley, Davis, Los Angeles and Santa Cruz are involved.

The research team has mapped out two of the three redwood parks they’ll study: Big Basin and Landels-Hill Big Creek Reserve in Big Sur. The third site will be north of Santa Cruz. Campbell’s team will analyze differences in coastal fog cover and redwood health between the three sites.

The Big Creek site “is a beautiful place to work, but it’s a critical place for science because of its location at the southern extent of the range,” Campbell said.

Due to its warmer southern location, the team believes Big Sur redwoods are the most at risk. They expect to see less fog, thus unhealthier trees, in Big Creek than farther up north.

Campbell’s team is using laser spectrometers, high-precision sensors that can measure “a trace of a trace” of carbon gas (in parts per trillion, to be exact) to gauge tree health. The technology is novel.

Ecologists traditionally looked at individual trees and sampled only carbon dioxide. But each tree is different, and carbon dioxide doesn’t tell the whole story.

Those “techniques are challenging; they’re like measuring somebody’s pulse through a thick down jacket,” Campbell said.

Looking at CO2’s cousin carbonyl sulfide can be more indicative of a tree’s health. Trees take in CO2 during photosynthesis and release it during respiration, but they hardly ever respire carbonyl sulfide. When Campbell’s sensors detect major depletions of carbonyl sulfide, the forest isn’t under stress. But when there’s an abundance of the gas, conditions aren’t ideal.

Data on forest health can be united with observations of climate-sensitive coastal fog. Coastal fog relies on oceanic and atmospheric phenomena. To track these, Campbell’s team uses ocean-atmosphere-land models, studying the interactions between each element.

Campbell, who grew up “running in the woods” and camping in Big Basin, is excited to get back to his Santa Cruz roots. Previously, his work as an environmental engineer had been on a continental scale.

He, along with California Secretary for Natural Resources John Laird, hope the science can be used to influence people’s behaviors and actions toward climate change.

“There’s an amazing amount that we don’t know. We know the top lines: the climate is changing, that redwood trees depend on things related to climate, but we don’t fully understand what we could do,” Laird said. “So the importance of this study is identifying some of those policy options.”

Once the study is complete, Stanford professor Nicole Ardoin will gather the results and formulate a survey for park visitors in an effort to promote climate change awareness and spur the public to action.

According to Save the Redwoods League, more than 2 million visitors registered at the main coast redwood park destinations throughout the northern part of the state in 2014.

“People really do love these redwoods. They travel around the world to visit Muir Woods and all these other wonderful spots for visiting the them,” Campbell said.

Though he and his team are just beginning their study, it became one of five studies the National Science Foundation chose to fund this year. The project has been allotted $1.75 million.

Campbell feels very fortunate.

“There are so many great ideas out there. To investigate those ideas you need resources, and there are a limited amount. Getting the opportunity to answer these questions make me incredibly grateful,” he said.

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